Improving fruit yields

A few years ago I went on an apple tree pruning course at Brogdale. Armed with this new found knowledge I pruned my apple trees. The result was lots of green growth and hardly any fruit. I have improved since then. So this year you can imagine my delight when I saw my apple trees inundated with blossom. At last I thought I have finally mastered the art of pruning, only to have my euphoria cut short; everyone one else was having a good year too!

There is a down side: if you do not do something about all that potential fruit you can end up with biennial fruiting (this also applies to Plums & Pears) which means you have a bumper crop one year and next to nothing the following year. Once into this cycle it can be hard to break. The ideal corrective action is to reduce the buds on each spur to two; cutting off some of the blossom and removing excess branches if the tree looks over crowded. This is often done in early spring. However now is not too late; for eating apples reduce the number of fruitlets to two per cluster with clusters ideally 10cm to 15cm apart. For cooking apples reduce to one per cluster and 15cm to 20cm apart.

When removing the fruitlets lift them upwards away from gravity to avoid pulling off the cluster. If you have the choice always leave the ones on the upper sunny side of the branch. This should give you good sized tasty fruit. Happy eating.

Keith Mitchell

Bethersden Gardeners’ Society